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Less giving to Kettle Campaign this year

Wednesday, January 3, 2018
6:20:01 MST PM

Ken O'Shea (left) of the Swan City Rotary Club makes the first donation to this year's Salvation Army Kettle Campaign as Peter Kim (right) and son Jonathan kick off the campaign at the Eastlink Centre on Thursday November 16, 2017 in Grande Prairie, Alta.

The Grande Prairie Salvation Army fell short in its recent Christmas Kettle and Mailer Campaign.

As of Dec. 15, the organization had raised about $225,645, well short of the $500,000 goal that was put in place for 2017.

A late charge by the public, in the last 10 days or so of the campaign, managed to raise about $218,265. That brought the total to around $443,910 for the year, compared to $475,000 in 2016.

“We’re grateful for the community to be able to donate that much,” Salvation Army executive director Peter Kim said. “We didn’t hit our goal but we re just grateful for the community still giving. They can still continue to give, even into the new year.”

The Kettle campaign seemed to be the driving force as those numbers increased but the Mailer campaign revenue dropped substantially.

“We saw an increase in donations from the Kettles themselves,” Kim said. “Our goal for the Kettles was $250,000 and I think we did over $260,000. With the Mailers, we set a goal of $250,000 but we ended at $190,000 and that’s where the significant drop was.”

Meanwhile, the need for the Salvation Army never appears to lessen.

“We’ve seen an increase in the usership of our soup kitchen and food bank and that was the reason we set the goal so high,” Kim said, noting the goal for 2016 was around $430,000. “We’re actually seeing a lot more new faces coming and using our soup kitchen and food bank. We’re seeing a lot more families coming in who are in need.”

Kim stressed that nobody in this city, or country, should ever go hungry.

“A lot of people think of charities near and dear to their hearts, and we encourage that, but when you think about food security, there should be nobody hungry in Canada, especially Grande Prairie,” Kim said. “That’s one of the big concerns. We are looking at the working poor, those who are homeless, single moms, the elderly and children. It’s something to consider when people think about where to donate to. Food security is an important aspect.”